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Azis, teachers’ conceptions and use of assessment

40

TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS AND USE OF ASSESSMENT IN STUDENT LEARNING

Astuti Azis SMP Negeri 4 Sungguminasa Kabupaten Gowa, Sulawesi Selatan,

email: [email protected]

Abstract: Education and schooling involve not only materials to be

taught or how they should be taught but also how the teaching and

learning are assessed. Studying teachers‟ conceptions is important, as it

relates to beliefs which influence teaching practices, including

assessment. This article reviews several studies on teachers‟ conceptions

and practices of assessment conducted in six different countries. The

objective of the study is to presents teachers‟ conceptions of the role of

assessment in teaching and learning from different contexts. Data were

obtained from a careful review of international articles on the study of

teachers‟ conception of assessment using inclusion and exclusion

criteria. The result of the review reveals that assessment relates to

learning improvement and support the use of various strategies and tools

in assessing students. However, the six different countries in the review

interpret improvement in different ways which is influenced by several

factors. Implications and suggestions for further study are also provided.

Keywords: assessment, conceptions, review, improvement,

accountability

Abstrak: Pendidikan dan sekolah tidak hanya melibatkan bahan ajar

atau bagaimana bahan ajar tersebut harus diajarkan, tapi juga bagaimana

proses belajar dan mengajar dinilai. Mempelajari konsepsi para guru

penting karena berhubungan dengan kepercayaan yang mempengaruhi

praktek mengajar, termasuk penilaian. Artikel ini meninjau beberapa

kajian terhadap konsepsi dan praktek penilaian para guru yang

dilaksanakan di enam negara. Tujuan tinjauan ini untuk menjabarkan

konsepsi para guru terhadap peran penilaian dalam proses belajar dan

mengajar dari konteks yang berbeda. Data diperoleh dari tinjauan

terhadap makalah internasional mengenai konsepsi guru terhadap

penilaian dengan menggunakan kriteria inklusi dan eksklusi. Hasil dari

tinjauan tersebut mengungkapkan bahwa penilaian berhubungan dengan

peningkatan hasil belajar dan mendukung penggunaan berbagai strategi

dan alat dalam menilai siswa. Akan tetapi, keenam negara yang

dipelajari dalam tinjauan tersebut menerjemahkan peningkatan dalam

belajar secara berbeda karena dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor. Peneliti

juga memberikan implikasi dan saran untuk penelitian yang akan datang.

Katakunci: penilaian, konsepsi, tinjauan, peningkatan,

pertanggungjawaban,

mailto:[email protected]

Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 2 No. 1, July 2012, pp. 41-51

41

Teaching is complex; it involves elements

such as curriculum, subject matter and

epistemology, teaching and learning, and

also assessment and evaluation. In other

words, the core process of education and

schooling engages the nature of what is

taught, how that content is taught and

learned, and how that teaching/learning is

assessed and evaluated (Brown, 2008). Thus,

the study of teaching relates to how these are

understood and applied by teachers.

The complexity of effective teaching

and learning relates to teachers‟ personal

conception and theory of teaching practice

(Kagan, 1992; Pajares, 1992). It is evident

that teachers‟ conceptions of aspects in

education process such as teaching, learning

and curricula strongly influence their

teaching and students‟ learning (Calderhead,

1996; Thompson, 1992). Conception, belief,

perception will be used interchangeably

through this review.

Conception or belief is part of the

knowledge that every practitioner needs to

have. Moreover, personal and professional

knowledge of a teacher can be regarded as

belief (Kagan, 1992). Belief also becomes

personal pedagogy to guide teachers‟

practice of teaching. It helps teachers to

define teaching tasks and organizing

knowledge and information related to those

tasks (Nespor, 1987). This implies that

teachers‟ belief or conception influences

their technique and practice of assessment

(Kahn, 2000).

Researchers define assessment in

various ways. The most general definition

states that assessment is “evidence of

performance” (Wiliam & Black, 1996, 540).

It “involves making decisions about what is

relevant evidence for a particular purpose,

how to collect the evidence, how to interpret

it and how to communicate it to intended

users” (Harlen, 2005, p. 207). More

specifically, Hattie and Timperley (2007)

defined assessment as “activity used to

assess students‟ level of proficiency” (p.

101). Thus, assessment can be grouped into

formative and summative purposes. Forma-

tive assessment aims to improve learning

and is conducted during the learning process

involving feedback to inform students‟

performance. The latter type of assessment

(summative), which aims to certify student

learning, is conducted at the end of a

learning period and involves scoring and

grading.

Whatever the differences of assess-

ment, teachers are the leading actor in the

learning process and first interpreter of

assessment information and process into

learning. Thus, it is important to investigate

teachers‟ conception of assessment and how

they make use of it. This study looks closely

at teachers‟ conception of the role of

assessment in teaching and learning.

To present evidence-based practice in

the area of teachers‟ conception and use of

assessment, I provide a review of studies on

teachers‟ conception and practice of

assessment from six different countries. The

objective of this review is to present

teachers‟ beliefs about assessment from

different contexts, how they translate their

belief into practice and what factors

influence their conception.

This review is divided into five main

sections. The first section explains the study.

The second section describes the method

used for the study, followed by an overview

of the articles. Section four discusses and

critiques the articles and closes with

summary of the review.

METHOD

The review draws attention to the need for

research that examines teachers‟ conception

and practice of assessment from different

parts of the world. In order to study this

issue, I conducted a search to find studies

investigating the conception of teachers

about assessment and the implication of this

belief for their teaching practice.

I searched the Educational Resources

Information Center (ERIC) and ProQuest

Education Complete, and used the internet

search engine and Victoria library journal

finder in the areas of belief, conceptions,


42

understanding, assessment, evaluation, test,

learning, teaching, achievement, improve-

ment, primary, elementary and secondary

school level. The various literature searches

resulted in 13 studies which led me to apply

the exclusion and inclusion criteria.

To be included in this review, the article

had to be a research study that examined

teachers‟ conceptions and use of assessment

to improve student learning. Criteria for

inclusion cover studies con-ducted at

elementary or secondary school level,

accomplished in different contexts to present

different beliefs and related factors, carried

out in language learning context and

completed within the last twenty years.

Studies that focused on impact of assess-

ment on teachers and student learning

(Journell, 2011; Amrein & Berliner, 2002;

Choi, 2008; Smith, 1991), sounded more

analytical than research (Hargreaves, 2005),

were conducted at tertiary level (Iqbal,

Azam & Abdiollah, 2009), or evaluated

subjects other than English (Adams and Hsu,

1998) were not included.

Overview of articles

From 13 potential studies, 7 studies were

excluded, leaving 6 studies investigating

elementary and secondary school teachers‟

conception and use of assessment in learning

for summary and analysis. Before presenting

the summary of the reviewed articles, it is

advantageous to distinguish among the

assessment conceptions used in Brown‟s

study, as these conceptions are the bases of

subsequent studies (Brown, Lake and

Matters, 2011; Brown, Kennedy, Fok, Chan

and Yu, 2009; and Bonner and Chen, 2009).

The Improvement conception empha-

sizes the use of information to produce valid

changes in teaching and learning (Brown,

2008). Teachers who view assess-ment in

this way believe that assessment should

improve students‟ learning and the quality of

their teaching (Black and Wiliam, 1998;

Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam,

2003). This conception requires teachers to

make valid, reliable and accurate

descriptions of students‟ performance

(Brown, 2002). Various strategies and

techniques used in teachers‟ practice include

informal teacher-based intuitive judgement

and formal assessment tools. These

techniques function to „identify the content

and process of student learning with the

explicit goal of improving the quality and

accuracy of instruction and/or enabling

students to improve their own learning‟

(Harris & Brown, 2008, p. 2).

Brown‟s School accountability con-

ception is used to account for the teacher‟s

schools, or a system‟s use of society‟s

resources. This assessment imposes con-

sequences for reaching or not reaching

required standards (Firestone, et al., 1998). It

also demonstrates whether school or teachers

are doing a good job (Butterfield, et al.,

1999). To this end, teachers who equate

assessment with school accountability

emphasize two rationales: demonstrating

school and teacher quality instruction (Smith

& Fey, 2000) and improving the quality

instruction (Linn, 2000).

The Student accountability conception

holds students individually accountable for

their learning. Grading and scoring, criterion

reference tests, awarding certificates or

qualification based on performance are

examples of this assessment in practice

(Harris, & Brown, 2008). To fulfil the

purpose of student accountability, certifi-

cation of attainment is needed, which reveals

that this conception is more about placing

student through high stakes consequences

such as graduation, selection or public

reporting (Guthrie, 2002).

The conception of irrelevant is held

when teachers reject assessment for a

number of reasons. In these cases, assess-

ment is seen to be separated from the

teaching and learning process (Harlen,

1998). Teachers with irrelevant conceptions

may feel that, assessment affects their

autonomy and professionalism negatively

and narrows the purposes of learning (Smith,

1991). Teachers may also believe that

assessment is less valid and unreliable

(Brown, 2002; Shohamy, 2001).


43

These four purposes of assessment

underpin Brown‟s TCoA, which has

subsequently been used and adapted in

several countries. Among them were

conducted in Queensland (Brown, et al.,

2011), Virginia, USA (Calaveric, 2010),

Ankara, Turkey, (Vardar, 2010), Hong Kong

(Brown, et al., 2009), and China (Li and Hui,

2007).

The following is the summary of the

topic, participants, methods and main

findings for each of the six included studies.

Brown, Lake and Matters (2011) conducted

a study on Queensland teachers‟ conceptions

of assessment. The participants of the study

came from primary and secondary school

teachers. Total partici-pants were 1398

teachers from 92 state schools in Queensland

Australia. Most teachers participating in the

study taught at levels 1-10 (elementary)

where no high-stakes test was applied. In

short, the participants were 784 primary

teachers and 614 secondary teachers. 65 of

the participants had 4-5 years teaching expe-

rience and 52% of them had graduate

diplomas. A questionnaire-based survey was

the method of data collection and was

conducted in 2003. The survey examined

teachers‟ attitudes, beliefs and practices in

the areas of curriculum, pedagogy and

assessment. The instrument used was a 27-

item conception of assessment inventory

which was wrapped in a positively packed

agreement rating scale with two negative

options and four positive options. In

addition, the study used four conceptions of

assessment as the framework reflecting three

purposes and one anti-purpose of

assessment, namely assessment for im-

provement, assessment for school

accountability, assessment for student

accountability and irrelevant. This frame-

work was supported with components

clarifying the conceptions of assessment.

The study found that primary school

teachers agreed more than secondary

teachers that assessment improves teaching

and learning while the latter agreed more

that assessment makes students account-

table. It also contended that irrelevance and

students accountability conception were not

related for primary school teachers. The fact

that Queensland primary schooling was free

from high-stakes test influenced teachers‟

conception of assessment. However, all

participants contended that improvement

conception was the opposite of irrelevant

conception. It implies that assessment is bad

if it is focused on students‟ accountability

and is inaccurate to reflect students‟ learning

or school accountability. The study also

found that improvement was positively

associated with demonstrating the school

accountability and showed no systematic

relationship with student accountability. The

study concludes that teachers in this research

believe in assessment as a tool to improve

learning. The relationship is supported with

the context of low-stakes assessment

designed to improve classroom practice

which allows teachers to improve learning in

a self-manage manner. The study indicates

that in the context of low-stakes test, teacher

perceived assessment as improving learning

and relied more on the practice of formative

assessment where teachers can use numbers

of assessment format and provide feedback

to students.

Applying the same instrument to a

different context, Brown, Kennedy, Fok,

Chan and Yu (2009) revealed dissimilar

findings in the second study. The re-

searchers examined Hong Kong teachers‟

perceptions and practices of assessment.

Two hundred and eighty-eight primary and

secondary school teachers from 14 schools

participated in the study. 80% of them were

female and 87% were primary school

teachers. More than half of teachers had

taught for more than 10 years. Genera-

lization of the study is limited to teachers

who participated in APL (Assessment for

Productive Learning) project developed by a

team of researchers at the Hong Kong

institute of education. Similar to Queens-

land‟s study, the research also used self-

administered questionnaires with close-

ended rating scales of two constructs:

conception of assessment and assessment

practice. The different context where the


44

study was carried out required the

researchers to translate the framework and

questionnaires into Chinese. This transla-

tion was reviewed and validated by a team

of expert panel to ensure any technical terms

had the right equivalent to English. The

finding reveals that teachers believed

assessment as improving learning. This

exactly fits with findings from the previous

study conducted in Queensland. Hong Kong

teachers also perceived that students‟

accountability was related to learning im-

provement. However, the correlation bet-

ween improvement conception and stu-

dents‟ accountability conception was inter-

preted differently between the two groups.

The low-stakes assessment context in

Queensland supported teachers to use

feedback in formative assessment practice.

On the contrary, Hong Kong created a high-

stakes assessment context which encouraged

teachers to rely on test and examination as

measurement of improvement. Hong Kong

teachers believed that examination was the

mirror of student competence. This issue is a

culturally embedded value shared among

Chinese and those with Confucian heritage

among the Asian region. The value might

become the constraints of assessment reform

in this context. This report describes

different conceptions of assessment which

tells that different contexts might view

assessment in different perspectives.

Cultural factors and policy systems seem to

be crucial components in forming people‟s

belief and conception.

The third study investigates teachers‟

perception about teachers‟ assessment in

relation to grading practices and learning

views (Bonner and Chen, 2009). The

participants were teacher candidates who

were enrolled in 3 courses offered at the

Hunter College City University New York.

The total numbers of the participants were

222, which was representative of teacher

candidates in the university in terms of

gender, and ethnic diversity. Similar to

previous studies, this research also used

survey to probe teachers‟ concept of

assessment practices and views of learning.

The survey examined teachers‟ perception

and actual practice and asked teachers to

reflect on the basis of final semester grades

in a single class. In addition, the question-

naires focused more on perception rather

than on practice. The study suggests that

elementary and secondary school teachers

were not supporting lax grading approach

but supported the academic enabling

approach to grading that relied on alternative

assessment. However, elementary school

teachers endorsed a constructivist approach

more and believed in alternative assessment

such as portfolio and project work as the

source of information for students‟

performance. Conversely, secondary school

teachers supported the behavioural

management approach to grading and used

more traditional approach and traditional

management approach. This finding implies

that secondary school teachers sometimes

used assessment to punish their students.

Interestingly, these teachers reported that

they tended to change their perception of

assessment after participating in assessment

training. The findings reveal different

conceptions and views of learning between

elementary and secondary teachers in New

York.

Conceptions of assessment held by

trainee teachers who attended a post-

graduate certificate in education at the

University of Cambridge were also inves-

tigated in UK (Winterbottom, Brindley,

Taber, Fisher, Finney, & Riga, 2008). Two

hundred and twenty secondary trainee

teachers participated in the study. Using 31-

item questionnaire with Likert, the research

found three major conceptions of assessment

reported by participants. They were: (1)

making learning explicit; (2) promoting

learning autonomy; and (3) gaining better

performance. The first two conceptions were

related to learning improvement and rated as

the most important purposes of assessment.

However, although the third conception

ranked lowest, participants reported that this

purpose was the strongest feature of their

practice. The findings revealed that there

was a huge awareness among participants of


45

the importance of assessment for improve-

ment. However, the learning environment

and high-stakes policy system caused them

to ignore their beliefs which Brown (2002)

would describe as their holding irrelevance

conceptions. This study reveals that although

all teachers held and wished to practice

improvement purposes of assessment, the

difference in the teaching focus between the

secondary schools and elementary schools

tended to block their intention. Again, it is

the matter of policy and educational system

that teachers need to agree with and follow.

The influence of policy and education

system was also captured in a qualitative

study to seven upper secondary school

teachers of different subjects in Finland

(Degbey, 2009). The focus of the study was

exploring teachers‟ conceptions of

assessment tools such as portfolio, perfor-

mance-based assessment, self and peer-

assessment and observation. Teachers stated

that these assessment tools had a positive

effect on students‟ learning, motivation,

performance and personal development.

However, they also contended that preparing

student for the school leaving examination

contributed greatly to their teaching

practices. These teachers held both

improvement and accountability conceptions

but needed to prepare their students for

examination. Participants in the study

preferred the assessment strategies and

techniques suggested for improvement

purposes; however, practices were inhibited

to fulfil the policy demand for examination.

This indicates that these teachers‟

conceptions related to the Finnish

educational system and external assessment

policy demands (Barnes, Clarke & Stephens,

2000). Their conceptions might have also

been shaped by culture as those indicated by

the study in Turkey (Vardar, 2010) and

Hong Kong (Brown, et al., 2009).

The final study used in this review

focused on upper primary level teachers‟

conception of assessment in Asian country.

Noor, Muniandy, Krishnan and Mathai

(2010) raised the issue of English oral

assessment in Singapore. Similar to Finnish

study, this is also a qualitative research

involving only 10 teachers who were

teaching at primary 5 and 6 levels. These

teachers were the examiners of English oral

assessment in PSLE (Primary School

Leaving Examination). Data were collected

mainly through semi-structured interviews

and were recorded. Before conducting the

real interview, the researchers piloted the

interview questions to validate them. The

interview was conducted 2 weeks after the

PSLE oral assessment. The questions mainly

focused on teachers‟ conception of important

components for oral skills, challenge in

conducting PLSE oral assessment, and PSLE

assessment format. In addition to the

interview, teachers‟ confidence and

competence in conducting oral assessment

were also rated using a 5-point Likert scale.

The study showed that there was variance in

teachers‟ beliefs and perceptions of the

extent that the PSLE English oral assessment

is reliable to measure students‟ oral

competence. The participants argued that

PSLE only measured general pupils‟ oral

skills and reflected the gap of oral

assessment to assess students‟ life

experience. The results also assert that the

teachers had various perceptions of the

challenges they faced in conducting PSLE,

among those were unresponsive pupils and

different interpretation of descriptors and

rubrics between the examining partners.

Remarkably, although the teachers perceived

that PSLE was not reliable, they gave no

specific suggestion on how to improve the

test. This study confirmed that PSLE, which

was summative in nature, although it did not

reflect improvement in student learning, had

an important position in describing student

achievement. This was due to the policy of

placing a high-stakes examination as the

indicator of students‟ performance. Again,

the conception of assessment reflects the

cultural embedded values shared among

people in the Asian region.


46

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This review focuses on elementary and

secondary school teachers‟ conception and

use of assessment in student learning from

several contexts. All these studies were

published between 2009 and 2011. Summary

of these studies reveal that assessment

relates to learning improvement. It meets

the basic purpose of assessment in education

to support learning (Black and Wiliam,

2006). The study by Brown et al. (2011) and

Bonner and Chen, (2009) indicated that

teachers used several assessment tools and

focused more on formative purposes of

assessment practice. They used feedback to

inform students‟ performance, share the

learning goals in teaching, and involve

students in assessment. Teachers reported

that these active-ties were conducted

frequently and that these were how they used

assessment to improve learning. The

conception and practice of assessment in the

two studies (Brown et al. 2011 ; Bonner &

Chen, 2009) reveal that assessment is

something to do with and for students and

not to students (Green, 1998). It also

matches with Hattie and Jaeger‟s (1998)

claim that “assessment needs to be an

integral part of a model of teaching and

learning” (p.111). Adversely, the dominant

use of high-stakes assessment especially in

higher level such those reported in Finland

and UK tend to influence teachers to hold

irrelevant conception. In addition, studies in

Hong Kong and Singapore lead teachers to

conceive that an examination or test is the

appropriate tool to measure students‟

achievement. Ranking and competition

derived from examination are believed to

increase students‟ tension and ego as well as

motivate them to study harder to be

recognized as good students. That is how

assessment is perceived to improve learning.

These four studies contend a huge gap

between east and west, which needs further

investigation.

It is evident in some countries that

summative assessment results in negative

impact such as lowering teachers‟ capability

to teach content and to use methods and

materials that are incompatible with test

format (Smith, 1991), creating gaps between

high and low achieving students (Paris,

Lawton, Turnet & Roth, 1991), and not

really affecting student achievement

(Amrein & Berliner, 2002). The condition

motivates most western countries to focus

more on formative assessment. However,

this evidence is insufficient enough for an

eastern context in terms of changing

people‟s beliefs of the importance of

examination to measure students‟ perfor-

mance. Furthermore, the practice of

feedback is hardly adopted in Asian classes

due to the large number of students in one

class (34-40) compared to smaller sizes in

western countries. These differences imply

that assessment provides tools that can be

used in a variety of ways. However, the

choice and deployment of the tools and the

interpretation of the results depend on

educational system, public and political

influences (Black and Wiliam, 2005).

It is not reasonable to judge that one

practice of assessment is better than the

other. Great inequality between eastern and

western in terms of teaching framework

should be considered. Both areas adopt

different views of learning as can be seen in

the application of product approach versus

process approach, learning by understanding

versus learning by doing and focus on form

versus focus on meaning (Senior & Xu,

2001). These differences significantly lead

to different beliefs and practices and also

systems of assessment.

The strong bond in culture is another

issue in forming teachers‟ conceptions of

assessment. The influence can be seen from

Hong Kong study that, although the country

was colonized by British, and English is

emphasized in the language curriculum, the

English education system had a very little

influence on teachers‟ practice (Sweeting &

Vickers, 2007). The huge numbers of

refugees moving from China to Hong Kong

after the Civil War in China in 1949 caused

Hong Kong to adopt a screening mechanism

for schooling (Berry, 2011). Up until now,


47

teachers, education officials and parents

have believed that examination is the best

qualification indicator and the main deter-

minant for admission to either secondary or

tertiary education in Hong Kong (Choi,

1999). As a result, even though Hong Kong

for almost eleven years now has taken

assessment for learning seriously, the high-

stakes social function of assessment, either

in teachers‟ conceptions or practice, tends to

block the reform agenda (Kennedy, Chan,

Fok & Yu, 2008; Brown, et al., 2008).

Lessons from these studies suggest a

gap between interpretations of assessment in

English speaking countries and non-English

speaking countries and signify that the

culture in different sites may contribute to

dissimilar conceptions and practice of

assessment. In response, Brown et al. (2009)

have suggested that to be effective, a policy

initiator should identify and respond to

teachers‟ conceptions before implementing

new plans for educational reform. Cultural

factors may hold particular relevance given

that assessment values among Confucian

peoples and European countries may differ

from those held in the West (Kennedy et al.,

2008).

The studies in this review involved 2145

people in total. Participants were elementary

and secondary school teachers and mostly

had 5 years or more teaching experience.

One of the studies had more than one

thousand participants, three studies involved

hundreds of participants and two other were

small scale case studies involving only

seventeen teachers. It implies that four

studies were quantitative and two were

qualitative. The large numbers of

participants in the first four studies indicate

the use of survey design and questionnaires

as the appropriate instrument to use.

McMillan and Schumacher (2010) argued

that survey research presents accurate

information from a large number of people.

Moreover, survey research is the procedure

to obtain description of attitudes, beliefs,

values, behaviours, opinions, characteristics

and other types of information of the

population (Creswell, 2005; MacMillan and

Schumacher, 2010). To this end, survey

research reflects the appropriate choice in

investigating teachers‟ conceptions of

assessment. In spite of this, a pilot test is the

big concern in conducting survey research. It

gives the researcher opportunity to revise the

instrument and make it understandable,

clearer and not ambiguous (Creswell, 2005).

The fact that only two studies followed the

procedure should suggest reflection for

further research. In addition, the small scale

studies in Finland and Singapore also mirror

the right option of using interviews to collect

data for measuring teachers‟ conception.

However, it might be insufficient to echo the

practice of assessment. Creswell (2005)

asserted that “survey only describes trends in

the data rather than offers rigorous

explanation” (p. 351). He also insisted that

Observation provides “the opportunity to

record information as it occurs in a setting”

(p. 211). Moreover, observation is needed to

ensure that participants‟ statements match

with what their action (Johnson and

Christensen, 2008). Thus, more qualitative

studies are needed for further research in the

field as well as the use of observation and

document analysis to support the interpre-

tation of the result of the study.

The identification of themes and

methodological issues in the studies of this

topic suggest further investigation in eastern

context, especially in the Asian region. Very

limited study has been conducted within the

area. Also, putting attention on certain levels

of schooling will be beneficial to interpret

data compared to analyzing it from both

elementary and secondary schools. The latter

issue is important because elementary and

secondary schools applied dissimilar

policies, which influence the different

conceptions and practices of assessment and

lead to difficulties in generalization and

interpretation of data.

In terms of educational implication, this

review suggests the importance of

maintaining teachers‟ commitment to use

assessment to improve learning. It also

informs that teachers‟ conceptions of belief

significantly relate to teaching practice.


48

Furthermore, the different findings resulted

from different contexts should encourage

policy makers to revisit their policy.

Queensland and New York governments

should stimulate teachers with a robust

conception that assessment improves

teaching and learning and demonstrate

accountability. Furthermore, more careful

consideration in the intervention of a new

assessment concept is needed by policy

makers in Hong Kong. This issue is crucial

due to the fact that broader cultural norms

and school culture might become the main

hindrance factor for assessment reform in

the region. In addition, there should be more

rooms provided for feedback in English oral

assessment like PSLE in Singapore.

Assessment reform should also involve all

elements in education system in order to

produce friendly and effective assessment

system. Overall teachers need continuous

support and training on assessment.

CONCLUSION

This literature review presents teachers‟

belief about assessment from different

contexts, how they translate their beliefs into

practice and factors that influence their

conception. It found that all participants

conceived assessment as improving learning.

However, this alignment was interpreted

differently in practice.

Western context (represented by US,

Queensland, UK and Finland) believed in

the need of low-stakes assessment to meet

the purpose. Furthermore, they also suggest

that different curriculum level may lead

teachers to have different conception due to

different policy implemented in each level.

On the other hand, Hong Kong and

Singapore, which represent eastern context,

imply that high-stakes assessment test

informs students‟ achievement. Therefore,

the examination is the appropriate

instrument to measure student learning. This

important difference entails that context,

culture, view of learning and policy are

factors that manipulate teachers‟ conceptions

and practices of assessment.

This simple review is definitely

insufficient to generalize the issue of

conception and practice of assessment that

further and deeper exploration in the field is

needed to address. Learning from the studies

presented in the review, conducting similar

research in the qualitative paradigm and

using various data collection methods such

as observation and document analysis seem

to be useful to present more accurate data.

In summation, the literatures on

teachers‟ conceptions of assessment suggest

that teachers believe both that assessment

improves learning, and that assessment

relates to school accountability. Beliefs that

assessment improves learning may lead

teachers to the practice of formative

assessment. However, where teachers report

a strong belief in high-stakes examination,

they may adopt different assessment

practices. Remarkably, from the six studies

reviewed, two of them attributed

government policy on education and

examinations as the main contributors to

teachers‟ conceptions. Some of the studies

reported that a teacher‟s level of teaching

(elementary and secondary or early year and

final year) was also crucial in shaping

teachers‟ belief of assessment. This may be

the result of policy which directs teachers to

a different focus of teaching and if there is a

highly mandated examination conducted in

students‟ last year of schooling.

Another important note from these

studies is how the experience of teachers

may determine their beliefs and concep-

tions. Involvement in professional develop-

ment program is reported by teachers as

contributing positively to their conceptions

and practices. Overall, a key difference from

the studies found that culturally embedded

assessment practices and educational

policies determined teachers‟ beliefs about

the purposes of assessment.


49

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